Lessness

There are two kinds of work: necessary and unnecessary. Can I refrain from unnecessary work? Refrain comes from the Latin word for bridle. Can I refrain from unnecessary speech? It’s not so easy.

Doing the work

We are spittle factories. We talk too much. More words count less. We know that; we long for the gleaming economy of right speech. But first we must know that breaking Babel will be very difficult—harder than quitting cigarettes or weed, harder than losing weight, harder than anything we’ve ever done. We ought not to attempt it unless our goal is our God, before whom there are no other gods, the only and absolute focus of our deathless devotion.

Weight gain

Most of what we say and do is not necessary.

Superfluity weighs on us. We become rolled and torpid.

Tighten your bolts

We shall not be vague or superfluous. We will check our speech, make every word count.

Men who speak routinely of trivial matters become trivial themselves.

Is it not so?